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A Few Weeds in Minnesota Decision to Allow Community Solar Gardens to Grow

Late last week, Minnesota regulators made a decision that may finally allow community solar projects to move forward (for Xcel Energy customers) in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. However, the Public Utilities Commission decision also highlighted the shortcomings of the legislature’s distributed solar policy adopted in 2013.

What was missing? Minnesota’s increasingly well-known “value of solar” formula was not selected, but rather an “applicable retail rate” that’s much more similar to traditional net metering.